Contact angle hysteresis – advantages and disadvantages: A critical review

The existence of contact angle hysteresis – the difference between the values of the advancing and receding contact angles – is evident in nature (e.g. sticking of rain drops to car windscreens and window panes) and many industrial processes (e.g. surface coating, spraying, and dyeing of fabrics). This phenomenon is often viewed as a nuisance, but it is advantageous in many processes including dip and spin coating, spraying, and painting. With the early theoretical framework of Thomas Young, Robert Wenzel, and A.B.D. Cassie and S. Baxter, describing the wettability of solid surfaces and by extension contact angle, contact angle hysteresis has been deeply investigated. We review here the various ways of measuring contact angle and, consequently, contact angle hysteresis as well as related theoretical models. The successes and limitations of these models are highlighted. We conclude with the advantages and disadvantages of contact angle hysteresis whose presence in many processes is often considered as a nuisance, especially when “coffee stain” forms from the evaporation of a volatile liquid drop containing nonvolatile components.